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‘We also, in the early days, just didn’t have many able women in the party, or able women who had the time to give to politics. That’s changed completely and if you look at the European election list for next year, the women dominate it.’

Mr Farage attacked David Cameron over his desire to want a Lords that represents the way people vote without any Ukip members

Mr Farage said Ukip would run candidates at every seat in 2015 but also suggested Ukip would be prepared to endorse individual Conservative MPs who were prepared to call for an in-out referendum before the election.

Never say never: The Ukip leader made clear he would not want to work with David Cameron if Ukip won seats in Westminster in 2015, but said he would not rule it out

David Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum in 2017 after re-negotiating Britain’s relationship with Brussels. But a handful of Tories are preparing to back a Commons motion tabled by backbencher Adam Afriyie calling for a vote next year.

Mr Farage said: ‘I think there will be discussions at local level and let’s see what happens. I think there are some people in the parliament who are on the right lines. When we do finally get the vote on the Adam Afrieye amendment it will actually clarify things rather nicely.’

The Ukip leader made clear he would not want to work with David Cameron if Ukip won seats in Westminster in 2015, but said he would not rule it out.

He said: ‘It’s pretty stupid in life to come up and say that you would never do something. I could say to you I’ll never, ever jump out of that window, but you know what, if that was on fire and the option was burning to death or jumping out of the window, I’d jump out of the window.

‘I’d have thought David Cameron would rather go to his political grave rather than ever contemplate doing a deal with the ghastly UKIP - that’s my judgment, I could be wrong.’

Mr Farage said he would rather work with London Mayor Boris Johnson or Education Secretary Michael Gove if they were Tory leader.

‘I’ve always said I think Michael
Gove’s an approachable, open-minded, interesting, intelligent politician
who understands that different people have different points of view and
that it can be actually quite acceptable to hold other points of view,’
he said.

Working partnership: Mr Farage said he would be happy to work alongside Boris Johnson or Michael Gove if they were to become Conservative leader

‘Boris is obviously a fascinating character. One thinks that his instincts are closer to ours than they are to Mr Cameron’s.’ Asked about Nick Clegg, Mr Farage said: ‘Cleggers! Well, he probably thinks that maybe Jose Manuel Barroso should become the next king of England.’

Mr Farage said he expects to be frozen out of TV leadership debates at the next election but plans to sabotage them by broadcasting his own response to the words of Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg and Ed Miliband.

He said: ‘I think that if UKIP has good cause to think that it should be in the TV debates and it’s excluded we will

provide an alternative form of entertainment on the evening. You could live stream.

‘People would have their TVs and their laptops next to it. They might think they can exclude us but modern technology has such a power.’